1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for providing caller information across heterogeneous networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for providing caller attributes to a call recipient over a computer network in order for the call recipient to effectively process the telephone call.
2. Description of the Related Art
Caller identification (caller ID) became possible with the implementation of Signaling System 7 (SS7) and is a technique to include a caller's telephone number in a telephone call to a call recipient. SS7 provides a signaling backbone for the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) which transfers call information from one central office to another central office. With the implementation of SS7, it became practical to forward a caller's telephone number through the SS7 network to a central office serving a call recipient (i.e. terminating central office).
A terminating central office receives a caller's phone number, and embeds the phone number in a telephone call to the call recipient between the first and second ring of the telephone call. In some instances, a name associated with the initiating calling number is included in the transmission message. The information is sent in one of two formats which are a Single Data Message Format (SDMF) and a Multiple Data Message Format (MDMF). The SDMF includes the date, time, and a caller's telephone number. The MDMF includes the date, time, caller's telephone number, and a name associated with the caller's telephone number.
Caller ID, however, includes limited information pertaining to a caller. A challenge found is that in order for a call recipient to retrieve more information corresponding to a caller, the call recipient must have access to a local database that includes the caller's customer profile. Many call recipients, however, do not have access to a local database that includes customer profiles. For example, a service repairman may receive a telephone call on his mobile phone from a customer while he is on call. In this example, the service repairman receives the customer's phone number, but does not receive the caller's address which the service repairman needs in order to travel to the customer's residence. Since the service repairman does not have access to a local database, the service repairman is required to ask the customer his address and write the address on paper.
Furthermore, a caller may wish to provide sensitive data to a call recipient in order to avoid entering his information using his telephone. For example, a caller may frequently order merchandise from a mail order catalog in which the caller provides the mail order catalog with his credit card information. In this example, the user may wish to automatically provide the mail order catalog with his credit card information when the caller places a telephone call to the mail order catalog. A challenge found, however, is that caller ID does not provide a way for a caller to authorize a call recipient to receive the caller's sensitive data.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method to provide valid caller information to a call recipient based upon a call recipient's request and a caller's authorization preferences.